Chevron Case Shows Depth Of Corruption

GUILLERMO I. MARTINEZ COMMENTARY

September 3, 2009|GUILLERMO I. MARTINEZ COMMENTARY

When things go wrong, Latin America's new socialist presidents react as violently as the caudillos of old.

Witness the reaction of Ecuador's President Rafael Correa to a television network's decision to air what he considered damaging information about a secret meeting he attended to discuss proposed changes to the constitution. Correa has threatened to close Teleamazonas, a network he does not like.

But that is not the only thing stirring things up in Ecuador, where Correa is attempting to imitate the totalitarian control that Venezuela's Hugo ChM-avez has imposed in his country - corruption and all.

On Monday, Chevron, an American oil company fighting an environmental liability oil suit in Ecuador, placed on the Internet a video recording of an alleged $3 million bribery scheme. The plan implicated the judge presiding over the environmental lawsuit currently pending against the company, as well as individuals who identified themselves as representatives of the Ecuadorean government.

The videos recorded meetings with a representative of Ecuador's ruling political party, Alianza PAIS. In it, Judge JuM-an NM-zM-qez reportedly confirms that he will rule against Chevron and that appeals by the energy company will be denied.

All this, even though the trial is still ongoing and evidence is pending. Also, another person in the video portrays himself as a party official and states that lawyers from the executive branch have been sent to assist the judge in writing the decision.

The videos also show how a person who claims to be a member of Alianza PAIS sought $3 million dollars in bribes in return for handing out environmental remediation contracts to two businessmen after the verdict is handed down. Of that sum, $1 million would go to the judge, $1 million would go to the office of the president and $1 million would go to the plaintiffs.

Chevron Executive Vice President Charles James said the company "has consistently asserted that the case has involved improper complicity between the plaintiffs and Ecuador's executive branch." If Correa is willing to close a television network for airing a tape of a non-publicized meeting he had to discuss how to modify the country's constitution, there is little hope that he will allow lawyers for a foreign company to challenge a judge who clearly is doing what Correa wants.

Guillermo I. MartM-mnez resides in South Florida. His e-mail is Guimar123@gmail.com.